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- Oregon Natural Resources Council (ONRC) and the Oregon Council of Trout Unlimited join 75 other conservation organizations to reverse Bush forest policy
- San Francisco, CA - Joining the States of California, Oregon, and New Mexico, 20 conservation groups today added their voices to the call for protection of the last wild places in North America. The conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal district court in San Francisco seeking to invalidate a Bush administration decision targeting the last, large untouched tracts of our national forests for industrial development. The suit asks the court to reinstate a prior rule that protected these key areas.
- Portland, OR -- Oregon conservationists today applauded the announcement of a court challenge by the states of Oregon, New Mexico, and California aimed at overturning the Bush administration’s plan to open America’s last roadless wild forests to logging and other development. However, conservationists urged Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski to do more.
- Portland, OR -- Oregon conservation groups greeted California Congressman Richard Pombo today with a full-page ad in the Oregonian. Pombo, who as chair of the House Resources Committee oversees much of the nation's conservation legislation, is fundraising in Oregon with the pesticide and logging industries and other special interests. Pombo is currently leading the charge to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to dismantle the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act
- Seattle - The Bush administration’s decision to eliminate safeguards that protected old-growth forests and associated plants and wildlife has been declared illegal by a federal judge. The “Survey and Manage” rules under the Northwest Forest Plan, required federal agencies to survey an old-growth area for rare plants and wildlife before allowing logging or other destructive activities, and if found, modify their plans to reduce the risk of extinction.
- Ten years ago the Northwest Forest Plan was adopted to bring balanced management to federal public forestlands in the Pacific Northwest. The decade that has passed since the plan’s adoption has seen both successes and failures.
- On April 7th, the federal Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) released its 2005 Operations Plan for the massive Klamath Irrigation Project on the Oregon/California border.
- A report released today by the US Government Accountability Office detailed problems with the US Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath “water bank” program, recommended improvements in it, and offered analysis of other possible solutions to the Klamath water crisis.
- Washington, D.C. - Commercial agriculture operations which siphon water away from wildlife and pollute the surrounding area with pesticides threaten the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex, placing it on this year’s list of the nation’s ten most endangered refuges, according to a report released today by Defenders of Wildlife.
- Cosmetics giant, Estée Lauder and home-furnishings retailer, Williams-Sonoma, Inc., are among the leading companies that have recently written letters to the U.S. Forest Service, calling upon the Bush administration to protect roadless areas in U.S. national forests.
- Portland, OR - Commercial fishermen and conservationists today applauded the release of the California Department of Fish and Game's final report on the causes of the tragic 2002 fish kill on the Klamath River. The exhaustive, peer-reviewed report's primary conclusion-that low water flows resulting from upstream irrigation diversions were at the heart of the kill-is consistent with previous analyses conducted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Yurok Tribe.
- Yesterday the Bush administration announced its intent to repeal the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a program created under President Clinton to protect some of the most pristine remaining wild lands within America's National Forests. The administration has said that it will replace this popular rule with a state-by-state "petition" process. The move strips protections from some 58 million acres of public land throughout the nation.
- Portland, OR – Some of the biggest names in Oregon’s corporate world joined with local manufacturers of outdoor equipment to call on the Bush Administration to uphold protections for National Forest roadless areas. Nike, Adidas, Salomon, Columbia Sportswear, and seven other outdoor recreation businesses headquartered in Oregon spoke of the importance of wild roadless forests to their customers and their businesses.
- Oregon Wild wins protection for Bull Run and Little Sandy watersheds, safeguards Portland's drinking water